The Camp,
Sunningdale.
May 17 1906
My dear Wallace
Only a few weeks ago I was in correspondence with Mr Massie[?]1 on the subject of your letter — to no end.
There are in the volumes of my father's2 correspondence at Kew some 90 letters from Spruce;3 & there must be in Bentham's4 correspondence, which I gave to Kew, a good many.
There are published in my father's "Kew Garden Miscellany" some 25 entries, copies of letters & information &c regarding Spruces' [sic] S. American travels.
From having myself read so many of his letters I can safely say [2] that they are of extraordinary interest & value, & that his unpublished material should be out of sight is unjust to his labour & memory & a loss to science.
I cannot doubt that such a work as you outline would readily meet with a publisher, your name alone would settle that point; and if you think my word with Murray5 Macmillan6 or Reeve7 would be worth consideration you have only to command it.
The task of editing would be heavy, & perhaps expensive, if, as I suppose, the rules of the Herbarium Library at Kew would not permit of the loan of the letters. Prain8 the new Director, would I am sure do all he could [3] to help you. Massie[?] is I know interested, & he is on the spot.
Ever yours |.Jos[eph] D. Hooker [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2850.2740)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP2850,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 16 February 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2850